serving the community since 1985 in gear · 2018. 6. 25. · one of the most difficult to traverse...

In Gear R O T A R Y C L U B O F B E A U M A R I S W E E K L Y B U L L E T I N Number 48 25 June 2018

Next Meetings

THURSDAY 28 JUNE

CHANGEOVER NIGHT

6:30 FOR 7:00 @ VGC

THURSDAY 5 JULY

FELLOWSHIP

ORGANISED BY JIM O’BRIEN

DETAILS TBA

THURSDAY 12 JULY

SPEAKER: DR ADRIAN BERTOLINI

TOPIC: INTUYU CONSULTING

CHAIR: DAVID RUSHWORTH

AV: DAVID LEA

CASH DESK: CHRIS WERNER & VIVIENNE ZOPPOLATO

2017—2018

Serving the Community since 1985

Presidents Report

I am not one for long goodbyes so I will keep this brief. It has been a great year and I am proud off all we have accom-plished together. Look out for the club’s annual re-port which will be availa-ble at changeover night. Thanks to everybody who contributed a piece and to David Lea who has done a marvellous job in pulling

it all together.

I am looking forward to handing the club presidency on to Heather Chisholm, I know we will be in good hands. It looks like we will have 88 people for our changeover night dinner; it should be quite a cele-bration. Heather and her team have done a great job in organising

the evening.

On a more basic note, Rotary annual dues are now due. If you have not already paid please do so as soon as possible, so we know how many members we have for 2018 -19. Payment should be made

direct into the club general account with your name as reference.

On Saturday, a group of us went to the community open day at the new Beaumaris Secondary College. It is certainly an impressive facility and I hope we will be able to develop close links with the col-lege. Kerrie has registered the club’s interest in being involved with

the college’s operation.

Finally, a very personal reflection. On Wednesday whilst out racing on the Bay we were circled by a flock of pelicans, had seals bobbing up for a look-see, saw fairy penguins chasing a school of bait fish and had two dolphins playing in our bow wave for a good 10 minutes. We are so lucky to live in such a great place. Let’s make

sure we do all we can to help others enjoy it too.

Enjoy your week, try to keep warm and I will see you at changeover

on Thursday.

Contents

1 Presidents Report 2 Notices / Photos 3/4 This Week’s Speaker 5 Club Structure / Photo of Week

Unless stated otherwise venue is Victoria Golf Club 6.30 for 7.00

Yours in Rotary Chris

COMMUNITY GARDEN

Rotarians will be pleased to know that the Community Garden project instigated by Heather and financially sup-ported by our Rotary Club at St Stephen’s, Gardenvale is

going very well.

I attended a meeting last Thursday at St Stephen’s, look-ing at the future. It was well attended by some 15 people and the President Martyn Thomas outlined what the com-mittee had in mind for the future. The emphasis now will be to involve more people than the 30 plot holders. To this end, they will designate plots relinquished, for whatev-er reason as “Community Plots”. Community members will then pay an annual subscription, which will entitle them to have produce from the Community plots, also they will be encouraged to attend working bees to main-

tain the community areas.

New developments have included a huge water tank and a greenhouse for all to use, especially to raise seedlings. Bunnings have donated a flash new Barbeque. We have the use of a Church renovated room and kitchen for meet-ings once a month, generously made available by St Ste-phen’s. They also wanted us to know the Church is run-

ning a “Christmas in July” on 1st July.

We now have a newsletter distributed to members to keep

us up to date.

More information David Greenall

R O T A R Y C L U B O F B E A U M A R I S B U L L E T I N – S E R V I N G T H E C O M M U N I T Y S I N C E 1 9 8 5

237 Bay Road, Cheltenham VIC 3192

03 8535 7980

Nick then transitioned to mainstream Primary for grades

4, 5 & 6 with almost fulltime support.

Three years ago, Nick started high-school; was early go-

ing through puberty; and changing schools

He had significant challenges of keeping up with the aca-

demic work and a lot of trouble making friends

This has resulted in an extremely difficult period which has caused him severe anxiety requiring hospitalisation

this past year for five months

A lot of this anxiety is a result of not having any social

interactions and no friends.

We’d previously tried school holiday programs, after-school programs and sporting programs, however we

found these unsuccessful.

We have also tried some of the special needs programs, whilst these are fantastic programs and very well support-ed by the disability sector - Nick didn’t enjoy these as he

doesn’t see his Autism as a disability.

This means that Nick ultimately has very few friends. He is well aware of this and observes his siblings who have

friends over and go to see their friends.

He can see how confident his sister is which creates sig-nificant tension between them at times. This is not unu-

sual in many families who have a child with Autism.

About 1 in 150 people have Autism in Australia. The research indicates the transition from school to adult life is one of the most difficult to traverse for young people with

Autism.

Unlike the Autism diagnosis and early intervention, there is little funding, guidance and support available for teen-agers and young adults with autism, particularly post the

school years.

Fewer than 1 in 6 people with Autism are in fulltime em-ployment and the current participation rate for people with

Autism in the workforce is 42%.

This compares with 53% participation rate for people with

disabilities and 83% for people without disabilities.

We know people on the Autism Spectrum have an amaz-ing set of skills and can bring an enormous amount of value to the workplace more than half have an above av-erage IQ and usually have a strong skill in their area of

passion (special interest).

Autism (or Neurodiversity) is also a categorization of iden-tity that is often overlooked and misunderstood in the

workplace.

From the interview processes to decision making, most of


Speaker: Michelle Ridsdale

Topic: Gecko Hangout

Note: As I was unable to

attend I have included

Michelle’s full presentation

notes in full. Ed.

“My name is Michelle Ridsdale and I’m the founder of Gecko Hangouts, a social and work-readiness program for teenagers and young

adults.

Firstly, I would like to acknowledge the Traditional Own-ers of the land on which we are meeting. I pay my re-spects to their Elders, past and present, and the Elders

from other communities who may be here today.

I would also like to thank the Beaumaris Rotary Club for their generosity in the recent grant provided to help estab-

lish this program and for inviting me to speak tonight.

This wouldn’t have been possible without the tireless as-sistance from Ros Porter, Program Manager at the Cas-tlefield Community Centre. Ros has been instrumental in assisting me to find the Program Leader as well as vari-ous volunteers. Castlefield Community Centre are also

providing the venue to Gecko Hangouts.

About Me

I’m a parent of a teenager with Autism

I’m also Head of People & Culture at a Technology Com-

pany

And the Founder of Shifting Mindsets & Gecko Hangouts

A personal story

Nick is 14.5 years old

Diagnosed at the age of 4 years old after two years of various assessments from speech, behavioural psycholo-

gists and the multi-disciplinary assessment.

He had early Intervention from the age of 3 years

Attended mainstream kinder with a fulltime teaching aide

Nick started in mainstream primary but due to behaviour difficulties we then moved him to Currajong for three years. Currajong is a school that helps children with so-

cial/emotional difficulties but has a mainstream curriculum

with that social connectedness

We also want to have a positive impact on their life pro-spects through our ability to develop their skills, so they

are more likely to enter the workforce

We would love to see the group expand over the next twelve months to other locations around Melbourne but in the future, we’d love to have purpose built centres where individuals can attend the program but have the ongoing

support during the day.

An unstructured program to some extent

We want something without the specific requirements

dictated by the school system

We will support our participants with dedicated mentors

Each term will have a different focus

Life-Skills – cooking, gardening, money management, ball

skills

Work-Readiness – Coding, building a café, Interview skills

Social skills – fun, networking with like-minded people

Each group will have a maximum of 8-10 participants with

the Group Leader and 1-2 volunteers

And how we came up with the name?

Nick loves lizards, reptiles and technology – hence Geck-

os and Hangouts for Google Hangouts/Social Networking

What support do we need?

We have hired a Program Leader and a volunteer, and the first group commences in Term 3. The focus area for

this program is creating a café

We are still looking for other Program Leaders or Mentors to help run specific skill-based activities such as garden-

ing; computer programming.”


our workplace environments are built around things like eye contact, noisy group work, and generally over-stimulating settings–in other words, they are built for more

“neurotypical” people.

Over 60% of employers said they worry about getting support for an autistic employee wrong, and an equal number say they do not know where to go for advice, however as you may have seen recently there are a num-ber of larger technology companies that are establishing

programs for employing people with Autism.

Some research about those with anxiety

In terms of young people, research has indicated that chil-dren with ASD are more anxious, withdrawn and have more severe social and attention problems compared with

other children

Teachers similarly rated students with an ASD as being more anxious, withdrawn, depressed, inattentive, hyper-

active, oppositional and aggressive.

There are consistently higher rates of anxiety amongst students with ASD than seen in typically developing stu-dents, and those with language disorder or intellectual

disability (but without ASD)

What I’ve learned about young people with Autism & social skills

They want to be accepted

They are often very aware of their differences and as a result can become very anxious around typically develop-

ing peers

Often due to their differences than can be treated differ-ently by their peers but also teachers and can be exclud-

ed from regular activities because of their “behaviour”

Our purpose is to create inspiring futures for people with

Autism

We know individuals with Autism, particularly those who have a high-level of function often fall through the gaps in mainstream education and other community & sporting

eco-systems

Gecko Hangouts is a social network for teens and young adults with Autism. The aim of the program is help facili-tate positive relationships, provide essential work-

readiness and life-skills and of course to have fun!

Like Early Intervention is to pre-school children, we want Gecko Hangouts to become life-changing for our teens

and young adults.

We are aiming to improve wellbeing through linking indi-viduals with the community. We want to provide them


LEAPS AND

BOUNDS

A Shikoku named Hai-

ley runs through a for-

est in the Netherlands.

The show dog belongs

to friends of Your Shot

photographer Judith

Vrugt. "I really like to

work with these kind of

dogs," she says. "They

always make you

laugh and give you

surprising moments to

capture."

President. Chris D’Arcy

President Elect. Heather Chisholm

Hon Secretary. James Glenwright

Hon Treasurer. Richard Jones

Projects Director. Roy Seager

Immediate PP. Malcolm Sawle

Independent Director. Vivienne Zoppolato

International. John Sime (Chair)

Fred Hofmann John Manks

Ken Mirams Ross Phillips

Robert McArthur Clem Quick

Youth. Chris Martin (Chair)

Jan Cooper Lois Lindsay

Tony McKenna David Rushworth

Vivienne Zoppolato Bridget Hage

Event Management.

Jim O’Brien Martin Fothergill

Robert McArthur Geoff Stringer

Antony Nixon

District Service.

Youth Services. Tony McKenna

Membership. Trish Smyth

Assistant Governor. Ken Mirams

Club Service & Administration.

Attendance & Dining. Heather Chisholm

Foundation. John Manks

Program. Lynda Doutch

Membership. Adrian Culshaw

Fellowship. Megan Glenwright

Auditor. Tony Phillips

Club Protection Officer. Ken Mirams

Communications. David Lea

Social Media. Kerry, Lynda & Trish

Archivist. John Beaty

Almoners. Lois Lindsay, Charmaine Jansz

Marketing & PR Peter Flude

Club Photographer. Max Darby

Community. Chris Werner (Chair)

Mary Cunnington Max Darby

Martin Fothergill Kerry Geard

Tony Phillips Roy Downes

Mary Sealy John Beaty

Richard Shermon Chris Mara

Market Management.

Vivienne Zoppolato (co-ordinator)

Heather Chisholm Ken Mirams

Greg Every Peter Flude

Indigenous.

David Hone (Chair)

Heather D’Arcy (Trachoma)

RCOB Club Structure 2017 - 2018

RCOB Board.

serving the community since 1985 in gear · 2018. 6. 25. · one of the most difficult to traverse...

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